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abarancun asum en 2 yernek mite chilinum asuma ya vonc chi linum ba(O)(O):)))
more jokes...
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| | President Bush nominates Marie L. Yovanovitch to be US Ambassador to Armenia
| | (31st March 2008, 14:22) |
US President George Bush has officially nominated Marie L. Yovanovitch to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Armenia, Mediamax reports, recalling a statement from the White House.
Ms. Yovanovitch currently serves as Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic. Prior to this, she served as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the Department of State. Earlier in her career, she served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Kyiv.
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| ArmRadio.am |
| | Deal Making: Kocharyan, Sargsyan say they’re ready to put more oppositionists in government
| | (27th February 2008, 18:37) |
While the opposed camps were thundering their differences in downtown Yerevan yesterday, President-elect Serzh Sargsyan was making an appeal to “all opposition political and public forces of the country.”
The appeal came on the heels of incumbent President Robert Kocharyan’s remarks made in a televised interview in which he admitted that the expected composition of the new government would include not only the two members of the governing coalition, but also wider circles.
“When the new government is formed, people will see that the winning president is willing to involve wider circles than the Republican Party and Prosperous Armenia in the activities of the government,” he said.
But the Ter-Petrosyan campaign was quick to retort through their mouthpiece. “There is no subject for dialogue,” campaign spokesman Arman Musinyan said.
The president spoke about involving a broader spectrum of political forces in the government the same day as the junior partner in the governing coalition, Dashnaktsutyun, announced its intention to withdraw its three ministers and expressed its readiness to terminate the cooperation deal with the coalition it signed following last May’s parliamentary elections.
Senior Dashnaktsutyun representative Armen Rustamyan stressed that “recently our relationship has been more of a competitive than cooperative nature” and “during this time we have had serious differences”. “Under these circumstances political ethics require that we should terminate the cooperation agreement.”
According to political analyst Yervand Bozoyan, this step of the authorities is aimed at easing tension, however he says real political processes indicate a completely different direction.
“It is hard to believe that for example Orinats Yerkir or Heritage will agree to cooperate with the authorities after a one-round election,” says Bozoyan referring to ex-parliament speaker Artur Baghdasaryan’s and ex-foreign minister Raffi K. Hovannisian’s political parties – the only two opposition forces represented in Armenia’s current legislature.
Talking to ArmeniaNow, Orinats Yerkir vice-chairperson Heghine Bisharyan said they have not yet received any cooperation offer. “In any case, no such discussion or negotiations have taken place to this day,” Bisharyan said. The same was said by Heritage party secretary Stepan Safaryan.
According to Bozoyan, this step by the incumbent president and the president-elect also solves two important matters for the authorities – first of all to unburden government responsibility from only the governing coalition and have an explanation in front of the international community [for a possible tough response].
“Following the appeals for cooperation from the international communities being constantly made these days the authorities pretend to be making a cooperation offer so that later they can say they had extended their hand,” Safaryan told ArmeniaNow. “However, if the opposition demands a rerun of elections and the authorities invite the opposition and it does not accept cooperation to the government, dialogue is simply impossible.”
According to him, a hand for cooperation was extended, but so that it is impossible to grab it: “The authorities are trying to alleviate tension instead of removing its causes.” |
| ArmeniaNow.com |
| | Dialing for Clarity: Voter hotline aims to create trust in electoral system
| | (31st January 2008, 09:51) |
A telephone hotline has been set up to encourage voters in Armenia to report violation of their electoral rights. By dialing 080-080-804, callers can get free legal aid on matters concerning voting through the February 19 presidential election and on till March 15.
“Our goal is not to register violations, but to take preventive measures, provide legal solutions to issues,” says cochairman of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly Armenia Committee Natalia Martirosyan. “If we declare ourselves to be a law-abiding state, we must solve all our problems in a legal way, which, unfortunately, is something we lack.”
The hotline operates as part of the Legal Initiative, Elections 2008 program. The members of the program initiating group are the Armenian Committee of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Free Tribune of Civil Initiatives NGO and Civil Society Institute NGO. The initiative also involves nongovernmental organizations from all over Armenia. The program is funded by the Counterpart organization.
Forty “ambulance” cars will operate throughout Armenia on Election Day to take lawyers, observers, civil activists and reporters to follow reports and tip-offs at polling stations. Legal specialists will also work at the central office. Regional NGOs cooperating with the initiating group will do work in the provinces.
“They will help citizens who do not know what to do in a given case. Lawyers will provide legal assistance, reporters will cover the evidence, and observers will register it. If the facts reach the public through media quickly, it is possible that such cases will be prevented,” says Martirosyan.
The initiators also implemented the program during the 2007 parliamentary elections. A hotline functioned then, however only ten “ambulance” cars worked then, without reporters. They had received more than 270 calls, half of them before Election Day.
According to Martirosyan, before Election Day they receive inquiries, for example what a citizen who did not find his name in the voter register should do or if he, or she, lives in one place but is registered in another. On the day of the polls they mostly report crowdedness at polling stations and violations of electoral rights.
Free Tribune of Civil Initiatives NGO chairwoman Gayane Markosyan says that the program is first of all aimed at changing the voting atmosphere.
“We particularly aim to solve two issues. First, to prevent the atmosphere of permissiveness and offer preventive mechanisms of control. Secondly, if there are violations, and citizens manage to get reinstated in their electoral rights in courts with the help of our lawyers and those breaching the law are punished, then trust (of the system) will develop.”
Organizers hope the hotline will be another tool in creating more awareness of the voting process.
“I had the idea of this program still after the 2003 elections when I saw how people tried to prove their claims at the Constitutional Court and could not do that because their claims lacked legal grounds,” Markosyan says.
The authors of the program think that people refuse to defend their rights in courts because they lack faith in the courts.
Martirosyan is convinced that if legal specialists of the program manage to go to the end at least with one case and prove that the electoral rights of citizens indeed were violated and those responsible are punished, then the trust will be restored.
“This is the most important and most difficult task of our program, which we did not manage during the parliamentary elections. And the problem was that those who reported violations shirked responsibility and backed off halfway through the process,” Martirosyan says. |
| ArmeniaNow.com |
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